It feels good to be back reading Isin again right on the cusp of this new anime entry Monster Off Season coming in 2 months July 2024 but as the elitist that I am thankfully Polaris put out the last arc so I can finally start Monster Season. It really did feel nostalgic reading Shinobumonogatari. I thought the English translation for it was something like sneak tale as the shinobu/i were ninjas and the sneakiness of the vamp in this story was utilized throughout the entire tale but Endurance or Endure tale also makes sense as that is the crux of the dilemma between the basketball clubs reserves enduring the practice even though they want to drop out and likewise DVS enduring not eating because everything that isnt Princess Beauty isnt even worth it. Shinobu Mustard is honestly perfect for an arc name with how heavy of an emphasis DVS has for food. Please it works perfectly with Araragi asking his questions to both DVS and Shinobu on humans which should be considered food as we get the nod to the name of this season: Monster. Not the oddities but humans themselves which is a perfect way to start especially since we only got the explanation of why Off Season was named that with its last entry of Musubimonogatari. This sort of clears up a little bit of my expectations/assumptions that the narrators would be the oddities themselves for this 5th season of the series. Itd been so long that I completely forgot about the Short Stories and didnt do any research because I was so excited to start reading this season that I was jumpscared by Araragi mentioning Mayoi Welcome so even though this short story is considered a prologue for this arc I am sorry to say I read it afterwards there were some other cheeky anime commentaries references that I got between Mayoi and Shinobu which was a pleasure to recognize I need to continue the Second Season commentaries. I had always wondered what a conversation between Mayoi and DVS would be like since they had time to spend in the barrier alone but that type of conversation was just put aside for this initial short story. Reading this prior to the arc itself will give a little clearer of the plot and even paint DVS as the main suspect stronger than the start of the novel itself Id reckon. I couldnt really care for Harimazechan as Id honestly completely forgot that she was the opening chapter for this arc. Half the time I thought it was actually DVS and then I thought oh maybe its that other thrall from Wazamonogatari that somehow didnt get eaten up or something until of course the story got to its punchline and was revealed it was the freshman chick all along. I guess maybe that was the point because this was someone that Araragi didnt have any direct connection to? So it made me think of Kaikis position in Koimonogatari as even Nadeko was mentioned in relation to this chick as the assumption was she became a victim and turned into a perpetuator however the audience is the only one who knows otherwise because we were the only people privy to that exchange of words. Although it kind of reminded me of spring break and Kizumonogatari it just wasnt quite the same. Also very interesting that Sodachi was mentioned so so many times by Araragi I guess the breaking up and getting back together with Hitagi over the college years was a result of this uncomfortable lack of boundaries that he has? Id love to hear Araragi and Sodachi actually have a conversation sometime during college just because I think it would be perfect. The arc had the rumors aspect that I do associate with Kanbaru heavily but merges it with rumors about vampires in general which was cool but I dont particularly care for any of the basketball girls outside of maybe Rouka because that part of Kanbarus life is over. I think my favorite part was seeing how useless Gaen was because of the punchline of this arc this is a story of monsters: humans which she has no understanding of. She really only knows everything about oddities but nothing about humans. So although it felt very similar to a lot of different arcs it didnt really stand strong on its own for me to call it a favorite. Although I usually say that Isin starts and ends his stories super strongly this one wasnt as strong to me. Well until the next arc Ill keep reading away at an increased speed so that the animes reshuffling doesnt annoy or affect me.